Life After Death
by DTNGl0v3
Summary: After Julia died Eli's life spiraled out of control causing him to shut out everyone in his life. Now he's been transfered to Degrassi where he finds an escape in his new friend Fitz and the life style he's introduced to
1. One Old Life

My body trembled not only from Morty's rumbling engine but also from the nerves I felt as I pulled up to my new school. Never in my seventeen years of life had I felt so unprepared for something. Outside of the school kids were running around in brightly colored clothing hugging each other and laughing. Frankly, I found this fucking disgusting. At that moment I realized that Degrassi would not be my saving grace but just another place where people looked at me like the weirdo. Moments after pulling into a parking spot a football slammed into the hood of my hearse, causing me to jump ten feet in the air. With narrowed eyes and flared nostrils I turned my head to see two guys, both bigger than me, staring wide eyed at the car. Faster than I could realize I was doing it I had cut the engine and leapt from the car. "What the hell!" I yelled and one of the guys, the taller and bulkier one, held up his hands and flashed me a smile.

"Dude it was an accident, relax." He said quickly and I glared at him as I bent down to pick up the ball. My pale, slender hands and black finger nails looked unnatural holding the rough leather but none the less I threw it back in a perfect spiral watching it soar directly into the hands of a now shocked tall kid. He stared at me in a really creepy way so I picked my bag up off the ground and began to walk away.

"Wait!" I turned and saw the other kid had taken a step towards me "You'll have to excuse Owen, football skills make him jizz his pants." He said and Eli smirked "I'm Fitz." He said extending a hand and reluctantly I shook it, putting my poker face back on.  
"Eli" I stated and then my eyes swung to a near by car where a girl with big brown curls laughed.  
"Thank god it's short; these two can't really handle big words." The girl slid off of the small red car and walked towards the three boys. Of all the girls I had ever met I would have to say that none of them radiated the type of attitude that I felt from "Bianca" She said and I cocked my head to one side, really taking her in. Every feature on her face was perfectly proportioned and her skin was tanned in a way that made her glow.

"What are you guys like the welcoming committee?" I asked and Fitz laughed as he lit a cigarette.  
"Fuck no," Smoke puffed out of his mouth as he spoke "We're just your regular old high school delinquents." Bianca rolled her eyes at this and Owen threw the football back to his friend, finally breaking the disturbing stare on me.  
"What grade you in emo boy?" He asked

"Eleven and I prefer Eli"  
"Us too" Bianca said with a small smile playing at her lips. A bell sounded through the schoolyard and I turned again quickly.  
"Thanks for denting my hood." I shouted over my shoulder as I walked towards the school alone, just the way I liked it.


	2. Three New Friends

The day dragged on without incident and I was deep inside my own thoughts as I walked to my locker before lunch. At that point in time there was no worse place for me to be stuck than in my own head. My dark exterior had spread deep inside me and not an hour passed where I didn't slip further into depression. Clenching my jaw to fight back from screaming against the shit storm in my head I began spinning my lock, completely oblivious to the fact that Fitz was standing to my left.  
"What's up man?" He asked and I breathed heavily through my nose, ignoring him "You want to have lunch with us?" I looked up and saw nobody around Fitz  
"Who is we?" I asked and he smirked, chewing on a toothpick  
"Owen is most likely still in the gym because he's a meat head" Fitz explained as we headed down the hall "And Bee's… Well she's just taking care of some business." He said but I really wasn't interested in his cryptic bull shit "Either way they'll both be in the café eventually." He finished and then continued to ramble about the food they served. Seriously, he talked about food until we sat down at the table with our trays.  
"Not once in my life have I met a person with so much to say about mystery meat." I told him, shoveling a spork full of potatoes in my mouth  
"Yeah well never in my life have I seen someone so ungrateful to have friends." Fitz retorted and I shrugged.  
"Touché" I ignored the fact that he had just falsely identified himself as my friend. People like me didn't have friends. I was dark and angry and messed up. My mouth was stuffed with food when Bianca slid into the chair next to me. This was the first time I had seen someone sit sassily.  
"You get it?" Fitz asked quietly and my eyes began to flicker back and forth between them.  
"Have I ever let you down Mark?" Bianca asked and Fitz smiled, popping a grape into his mouth, before looking back at me "Are you coming?" He asked me and my eyebrows shot up in confusion. These people were so weird. I mean they hit my car with a football and it's like suddenly I'm a member of their little hoodlum gang.  
"Coming where?" I asked and Fitz leaned in closer  
"We picked up." He said stressing the last two words and then I understood. Maybe I had fallen into some luck after all.  
"Oh, alright...sure." I said and they smiled  
"Don't look now Fitz, but your guardian angel has landed." Owen grunted as he took a seat next to Fitz and all four of us switched our gaze to a pair of girls strolling into the room. The first one was very short with dark skin and black hair. Her dress was shorter than I usually preferred on my women but I couldn't deny that she was attractive. However it was her friend that really caught my attention. Only slightly taller than the first girl, she had short cinnamon curls that bounced as she walked and her smile was enough to take anybody's breath away. The small parts of skin that were revealed were pale and glowing practically calling to me to touch her as she brushed past the table. Fitz's eyes burned with longing as he stared at the pale girl. Bianca laughed loudly and looked at me.  
"Fitz has a hard on for Saint Clare."  
Fitz cleared his throat "Fuck you" He said but Bianca only laughed again  
"Come on Fitz, she dresses like my nana."  
"Not everyone has to be a slut Bee" Owen retorted and got kicked under the table for it.  
"You guys just drop it alright!" Fitz shouted and his friends fell silent. I was so amused I barely noticed that people around us had stopped to stare at Fitz's outburst. Once the room went back to normal Owen leaned in and his eyes met mine.  
"Clare's super religious, super smart and super uninterested in guys like him." He emphasized each 'u' and pointed at Fitz with his thumb.  
"I said shut up." Fitz's teeth were now clenched and Owen rolled his eyes  
"It was a joke, calm down" He said but I could see a combination of desire and anger burning in my new 'friends' eyes and I knew that there was something to him aside from his moronic friends and their weed. When the bell rang Bianca fell into step beside me.  
"Fitz and I will be in the parking lot after school" She told me  
"What about Owen?" I asked although honestly I didn't care.  
"He doesn't indulge during football season." She ruffled my dark hair before prancing off towards her next class.  
"I wouldn't fall for her if I were you." Fitz patted my back and I looked up at him  
"Wasn't planning on it" After last summer I never wanted to be in love again  
"Well good. I mean I love Bee, don't get me wrong" We stopped at his locker "But that girl's a whore." He chuckled and I laughed heartily "Just don't tell her I said that" I made a 'lips zipped' gesture and Fitz stuck his fist out, bumping it with mine. "See you after school bro." My mind finally caught up as he walked away from me. These people were accepting me for the creepy dark guy that I was. Not only that but they were willing to associate with me outside of school. Not wanting to seem too enthusiastic I simply shrugged it off and proceeded to my next class.

In the parking lot I could hear Bianca's car before I could see it. The bass of her Latino hip-hop music shook the cars on either side of hers and I wore my disgust clearly on my face as I approached Fitz who was leaning against the hood, an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth.  
"Uh, could we take my car?" I asked and Fitz rolled his eyes  
"I know, it's horrible but she'll never go for it." He replied but I ignored him and walked to the driver's side window where Bianca was singing and bobbing her head.  
"Would you mind taking my car?" Even shouting I could barely compete with the music. Bianca turned down the stereo and looked at me expectantly "I just don't really want to leave it here…" I began to explain but she cut me off by blasting her horn causing Fitz to jump across the parking lot.  
"The fuck!" He shouted and Bianca laughed.  
"Go with Eli and show him how to get to my place." She commanded. Fitz saluted her sarcastically and then waved me towards him.  
"Can I smoke in your car?" He asked, lighting a fresh cigarette with the butt of his last one apparently taking my lack of response as agreement.  
The drive was silent at first aside from the sound of Fitz scanning the radio, one of my biggest pet peeves. The little bits and pieces of each song and each commercial distracted my mind but not in a good way like a song could. Hear the scattered parts caused chaos in my mind. "Holy shit, would you just pick something already?" I snapped and Fitz's eyes widened and he stopped on an unidentifiable metal song and began bobbing his head.  
"You know what Eli?" He inquired and my eyes rolled slightly  
"What?"  
"I've figured out what your problem is. You don't relax." Quickly I glanced in his direction and noticed he now had a joint hanging from his mouth. "Don't tell Bee" He winked at me, not in a creepy way, and took his lighter to the tip of the joint. At that time I had only smoked three times. Once when I first found my dad's stash, again when Julia and I had found her dad's stash, and one last time when I went back to my dad's stash after she died. Now the sweet and natural smell filled the hearse and filled my mind with memories. After taking two long pulls he handed me the smoking joint. The mere feel of the soft paper between my fingers brought me back to Julia's room. We laid in her bed giggling at one another for hours, the only pause in our laughter came when our mouths were too caught up in each others. Thick smoke filled my lungs again and for a split second I thought I might die from the pain of thinking about her. My entire body relaxed as I slowly exhaled and Fitz chuckled.  
"That's the shit right?" He asked and I nodded slightly, using all of my power to keep my eyes on the road.  
"No worries man, as long as you're around me there's plenty more where this came from." He said before telling me almost a second too late to take a left onto Bianca's street.


End file.
